People are talking about: ACA, autism, hospital infections

Clock winding down for ACA enrollment. The first wave of enrollment into the Marketplace, or health insurance exchange, ends Monday. The White House reported that more than 6 million people had enrolled in the ACA and there were 1.5 million visits to healthcare.gov. Government officials’ goal was to have 7 million enrolled during the first enrollment period.

The Marketplace is a network of private insurers, in which the uninsured and small businesses can choose a health insurance plan. Some will be eligible for subsidies.

Open enrollment will occur again on Nov. 15 for 2015. That open enrollment period ends Feb. 15, 2015.

CDC: Autism diagnoses jump another 30 percent. A new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that 1 in 68 children in the U.S. have autism spectrum disorder. This represents a 30 percent increase from two years ago. Researchers studied gathered health and educational records of 8-year-olds from 11 states for this new report. They found that autism continues to affect boys more than girls, with one in 42 boys having the disorder, compared to one in 189 girls.

Report: One in 25 infected in U.S. hospitals. A new report by the CDC states that one in 25 people acquire some type of infection while in the hospital. Citing data from a 2011 survey of 183 hospitals, health officials found that 648,000 patients acquired 721,000 infections while in the hospital. The most common infections were pneumonia, surgical site infections, gastrointestinal infections, urinary tract infections and bloodstream infections.